Best scope for terrestial viewing

what is your opinions on scopes,
when is larger objective overkill
thanks for any suggestions

Indubitably ;-), it would be a small refractor, BOB (even better a semi-apo or an apo). Makes no mistake, the difference between a fast achromat and an APO is very noticeable in terms of sharpness, contrast and crispness. I'd say if terrestial is your main desire, 102mm is too large :-(. I used my TV-102 for viewing the varmint (squirrels) 50 ft away peering into its teeth crunching on a nut, ships on the ocean 50 miles away, cars on the bridge 45 miles away, July 4th firecracker 40 miles away (look neat - like a fully resolved but colorful globular clusters), etc. But 4" aperture is too large and **overkill** to be *primary* terrestial scope. I'd think something like a TV Ranger/Pronto, TV-76 or TV-85 would be perfect if ($$$ or $$$$ is not an objective). Tele Vue makes green tube presuming for birders to hide from the birds ;-). Also, in the day time, over long distance (like 50 miles ;-), the ground heat makes even moderate magnification unusable (say above 73x). At night, it's a lot easier to get above 110x!

BTW, these small refractors makes decent moon and planetary scopes, oh solar too with filter, even on many bright DSOs.

Ron B[ee]

Pentax PF80-ED is a great scope, and it takes standard 1.25 eyepieces. Nitrogen filled and rubberized coating integrated lens shade.

I also use a Celestron C5 with a 40mm eyepiece to get some good views and pictures of wildlife.

// Jerry

Bob, if we knew your budget we would be better able to make sound recommendations. All the above advice is excellent if you have that kind of money but, if not, I would not hesitate in recommending the Orion short tube 80 scope! It comes with a correct image diagonal and two eyepieces that give you wide angle views at powers that are reasonable for terrestial viewing. Approx. 16x and 40x which is plenty good enough for that type of viewing. A 5mm will you 80x which is about its limit for day time viewing and that can be increased to more than 120x for star viewing.IMHO you cant go wrong with this scope and a mount from Orion as they have a good return policy if you are not satisfied.
Hope this helps--------Roger in Tampa

My vote would be the Takahashi Sky90. It's small and light, yet a large enough aperture for high powers and bright viewing. And the optical quality is superb; it's as sharp and contrasty as any refractor I've ever used.

Ron Wodaski
author of "The New CCD Astronomy"
http://www.newastro.com